Pariah
by Medinaquirin
Summary: Tortured, branded, and left for dead, a Zafara is found wandering in the desert and saved by sheer happenstance. Her rescuers are left with the task of discovering the unfortunate events that befell her. Fourth chapter is currently in the works.
1. Chapter 1

Pariah

By K. Margaret Smith

Chapter 1: The Temple 

The heat that beat down from the midday sun and radiated back from the near endless expanse of dunes was enough to make even the Bedouins huddle in their tents or burrow down into the sand to find even the slightest shade. Even the camel seemed to be trudging slower, desperate for respite from the constant heat. But to lithe feline form that sat perched on the weary camel's back, the heat and the light that poured down from the faded blue sky was pure heaven. Lehnah stretched, her pale golden skin glowing in the intense sunlight. Her dress, a short, desperately thin shift blocked little of the light and showed most of her body quite clearly, her long blonde hair cascaded down over the arm of the seat and hung swaying in the breeze. The aisha flexed her legs, drinking in the warmth as a plant might do, and fingered one of the gold bands around her ear stalks.

Lehnah had studied elemental focus since she was a teenager, when her tutors in the Altadorian court had recognized her gifts. The women in her family had been priestesses to Siyana, a powerful light faerie and one of the protectors of Altador. In return for years of faithful service, Siyana had gifted them with light magic. At thirteen, Lehnah's tutors began noticing telltale signs that the elemental magic had manifested in her. She would linger for hours on the rooftops sunbathing, and when she would return her skin would show no signs of either tanning or sun burning, but the young girl would appear even more vibrant and energetic, her skin and hair still luminous, as though the light had simply absorbed into her.

She had spent the next seven years in the marble halls of the capitol learning to hone her gift, but she had always delighted in finding hot spots, natural wellsprings of power and light. She had danced in the mouth of a crystal cave on the cliffs of Altador, on the craggy mountaintops to the east, and had even met one of her closest friends during a reverie in a sunlit meadow in Brightvale. Her travels had finally led her south into the desert, in search of some nearly forgotten temple she had read about in a nameless old tome in the archives of Altador. She was perhaps ten miles into the dunes now, easily a day's journey from the nearest city, although she had passed a band of wagons the day before on the hardpan. It had been a band of gypsies, skirted women with flowing hair bustling around, tending to children or laundry or to one of three large pots that hung bubbling over crackling fires. Lehnah hadn't seen a single male among them between 15 and 50, out hunting she assumed, but there were at least three women in fitted leather breeches and boots instead of the flowing skirts, and on two of the three she could see daggers in their belts. She would be willing to bet there were more in their boots and perhaps a curved stiletto hidden in the bodice of their silk shirts.

There was a somber mood about them, which was unusual, at least from what Lehnah had seen of the northern gypsies. Their camps were always full of songs and joyously raised voices. Here there was scarcely a voice heard, except the occasional call of a child to its mother. In the other camps, the children had always been running around, chasing their dogs or each other, here they simply sat close to the wagons and tents, prodding at the hardpan with their shoes.

As Lehnah approached, one of the women, a sour-faced, gray haired zafara tending to a bucket of laundry spotted her, and obviously did not approve of such flimsy attire. Or perhaps did not approve of strangers at all. She raised a soapy hand and forked the mano cornuto at the aisha and spat between her forked fingers. Lehnah had straightened and the smile that had sprung on her lips withered. She'd considered for a moment trying to camp with them that night, but seeing the old woman's reaction, and looking around further to see the glares of the women hurriedly covering the younger children's eyes, it was obvious she wasn't welcome there. She had camped by herself that night with only the rather disinterested camel to keep her company.

Lehnah sighed and pulled herself up in the seat. She didn't understand some people. Warriors were renowned for their battle prowess, vicious acts of violence rewarded with respect. But show them a bit of skin and you might as well have threatened their children with disembowelment. This double standard was one reason why she loved dressing so provocatively. Lehnah positively loved pushing peoples' buttons, and what better way to do so than to flaunt something that stirred up such wildly different reactions? Men stared at her openly, or tried as slyly as they could to eye her up discreetly. The younger ones often looked at her with bewilderment, and in the case of a few young ladies, even a touch of admiration. Women though, most of the looks she got from them were shocked, spiteful, sometimes even disgusted. One rather memorable trip to a marketplace in Brightvale had ended with an incensed woman storming up to Lehnah, knocking her shopping basket out of her hands and backhanding her across the face. Hard. Apparently the woman's husband, easily the homeliest looking ogrin Lehnah had ever seen, had been watching the aisha's slow progress around the outdoor market just a little too closely for her taste. Lehnah had been too shocked to do more than stare at the belligerent woman. She hadn't even been wearing anything particularly revealing that day, although the powdery blue dress had, for it's high neckline, clung quite tightly to Lehnah's breasts. Those always seemed to be the root of the problem. She had worn dresses so short they could have passed for a cropped tunic, but her legs didn't get her into half the trouble her breasts did.

Lehnah gave a little "hmph," and let her eyes adjust again to the bright desert sun. She would never understand why people were so frightened and disgusted by the very things the gods had given them. As the glare in her eyes subsided, her pulse quickened with excitement. While she had been lost in her own thoughts, her camel had slowly skirted one of the giant, towering dunes, and she now had a clear view of the valley ahead of her. The valley itself was vaguely bowl-shaped, its western edge disappearing into the foothills of the mountains. In the center of this bowl of sand, so alien to the area it seemed to have fallen from the sky, was a glistening white and gold structure of what appeared to be marble, made up of a huge, glittering central dome ringed in smaller domed chambers. Ringing the structure was a thick swathe of verdant green, easily the largest oasis Lehnah had seen in her travels.

Lightheaded with excitement, Lehnah nudged the camel forward toward the glittering domes, although she scarcely needed to; the animal had caught wind of the water and greens that encircled the building. The camel quickly made it to a trot and within a few minutes it was nibbling contentedly on the greens by a shaded pool as Lehnah slipped down onto the impossibly cool grass. It was _much_ cooler here, but to Lehnah's senses, just as full of energy as the high desert sun on the dunes, perhaps even more so. As she made her way across the oasis courtyard to the alabaster steps of the entryway, relishing the soft, cool grass under her bare feet, she could see the mosaic on the arched entrance. The pale marble had been clad in an opaque, deep blue stone. The left pillar bore a crescent moon inlaid in opalescent moonstone, the right a ten-pointed star whose sparkle could only mean diamond. Lehnah's eyes widened. The star was one solid cut diamond, its width easily the length of Lehnah's forearm. The acquisitive side of her practically fell over itself with a desire to touch the giant gem. She pried her eyes away from the star with some degree of difficulty and brought them up to the top of the arch. She cooed appreciatively. At the apex, surrounded by filigreed rays of gold, was a glowing gemstone sun, set in polished chips of amber and yellow jade.

As the last of the sun-beaten heat faded from her skin and absorbed into her core, Lehnah became more aware of the energies that flowed around her, a gentle, rippling current that flowed directly out of the stone edifice before her. She opened her mind's eye and now she could actually _see_ the flow. A watery tide of mingled silver and gold poured down the steps in front of her like some ethereal waterfall. The walls and columns rippled with the same flow, and the air was thick with a swirling mist of the same gold and silver color. The glowing golden warmth of the sun and the pale, watery coolness of a moonlit night coursed through the place. Lehnah grinned up at the shimmering stones. The old tome had been right. She had found the Celestial Temple.

Her legs trembling, her lungs reluctant to take in more than the slightest gasp of air, she mounted the steps and made her way into the temple. The stone was warm, the air cool. The floor was the same gold-veined marble as the columns, occasionally inset with pale lavender lotus-shaped tiles. The first chamber was spacious; a small raised garden occupied the center, climbing with some yellow and white bell-shaped flowers that Lehnah had never seen before. Lehnah brushed one of the golden bells with a gentle fingertip, smiling as the touch released a warm, cinnamon like perfume. She wished furtively that Aadhlei could have accompanied her here. If there was one person that could have shared in the excitement of this find, it was Aadh. But she had family to tend to, a house that had to be looked after, a garden that required her constant care, and a business to tend. Aadhlei sold remedies and potions in a small shop out of Brightvale. She didn't run the shop, as a matter of fact the only times she went there was once a fortnight to deliver more goods and pick up her earnings from the last two weeks. She was simply a supplier.

There were no doors here; each chamber was connected to the next by a wide archway framed in wispy drapes of white silk. She came to an immense room with a recessed lotus-shaped fountain bubbling away at the center. Gold-clad marble pillars stretched nearly thirty feet in the air to a domed glass skylight. Shafts of golden sun bounced and played off of the dancing water. Deep emerald green showed through two archways here; a garden grew in an adjoining crescent shaped chamber. A wide altar sat between the two garden doorways. Her head swam a little from the steady hum of energy and the perfumes that drifted in from the garden. Honeysuckle, rose, lily-of-the-valley (one of Aadhlei's favorites, Lehnah lamented), calendula, an orange blossom filled her nose. There was some kind of incense, the musky-sweet odor suggested frankincense and myrrh, burning on the altar, and it mingled sweetly with the scent of the flowers that had no business blooming so hardily in the desert, oasis or not.

The gentle tinkling of the fountain rang in her ears, and from somewhere in the garden she could hear the clear, sweet tones of a songbird. Her skin began to tingle from the power that flowed around her, and Lehnah dropped with shaky legs in front of the flower-strewn altar. The temple was both blissfully serene and incredibly heady, and Lehnah's senses were in danger of overloading before she even began her meditations. She took a deep breath, trying to concentrate on one sensation instead of a dozen, and dimmed her senses down until all she could hear, all she could sense was the trickling fountain. Her mind once again under control, Lehnah closed her inner eye tightly. She wasn't prepared to have all her senses open to this place. There was simply too much to take in.

She took a deep breath and opened her eyes, focusing on the three statues on the stone altar. It was the Sky-Sisters, three ancient, celestial faeries mentioned only in passing in the tome that had given the location of the temple. All three were delicately carved from gemstones with subtle gold and silver embellishments. The central figure was the only one of the three Lehnah actually recognized, but this didn't surprise her. There had been dozens, maybe hundreds of obscure, half forgotten faeries in the old tomes she had read in the archives of Altador, and several nameless faeries that seemed to only exist in old paintings, mosaics, and etchings.

In the center, carved in yellow jade and amber, was Siyana. Her wings carved in paper-thin citrine wrapped in thin bands of gold. Her right hand, no bigger than the tip of Lehnah's finger yet detailed enough to include a tiny gold ring and gently rounded fingernails, held a blazing amber sun. On the left, with her back towards Siyana, was a pale, glimmering figure of alabaster and moonstone. The level of detail, which had been impeccable in the statue of Siyana, was simply breathtaking here. The faerie's long, silver-white hair was coiled and looped in braids held up with silver bands. A silver band formed the belt at the waist of her white gown and the clasp – a full moon flanked by a waxing and waning crescent – on her silvery-blue cloak. Silver threads formed delicate swirls on her pale crescent shaped wings, and her eyes were shining silver orbs that gleamed serenely at Lehnah. A crescent shaped lantern of intricate silver filigree dangled from the moon faerie's alabaster hand. The final statue, what could only be the star faerie, stood on the opposite side and was poised as though in mid-turn, her skin the same alabaster as her lunar sister. Her hair, tossed by her spin, was blackest jet shot through with seamlessly inlaid veins of some dark blue stone and dotted with tiny diamonds. Lehnah admired the effect: a star-studded night sky caught up in the faerie's dark tresses. The effect was mirrored in the faerie's flowing gown, gossamer wings, and dark, smiling eyes. A diamond ten-pointed star glittered in the statue's cupped hands.

Lehnah kissed the tip of one finger and gently touched it to the base of each statue, remembering a chant that had been scribbled in the margins of that old tome and changing it slightly to suit her purposes. "Silvered one of the crescent moon," Lehnah began, her voice resonating strangely in the vast stone chamber, "pale ruler of the starry skies. Rayed lady of the shining sun, forgotten sisters of the sky. I call to you in this holy place and pray you send your blessings down upon my meditative rite."

Lehnah breathed deeply, filling her lungs with the heady scent of flowers and incense. She lay back, feeling the sun warmed marble through the thin shift of her dress, and slowly opened her senses again. She took her time, letting her mind adjust to the heightened awareness before allowing more of the magic to flow into her. Working slowly, she began to weave the magic around her in glimmering gold-silver strands, making the weave more intricate as she absorbed more power. She was aware on some surface level of a growing light outside her closed eyes, a light that matched the glow of the gossamer threads she saw shimmering around her with her inner eye, even as the sun began its descent behind the mountains. The air around her shimmered with a rippling golden light that grew brighter and brighter. When the last delicate thread was securely in place, Lehnah sent a rippling wave of energy through it, which the weave reflected back into her.

Lehnah's nerves were on fire with a delightful heat. Her mind reeled as she felt her body become a magical feedback loop, drinking in power and sending out twofold. She felt weightless, as if flying, or being carried on a smooth wave. She went with it gladly. She had performed this meditation dozens of times, each time more intense than the last as her gift was honed, but this was by far the most powerful experience she'd ever had. How long she kept her reverie for, Lehnah wasn't certain, although she was vaguely aware of a shift in energies as the sun set and the cold desert stars came out one by one. Reluctantly, Lehnah began releasing the weave and slowly closed herself off to the flow of energy.

The weave finally dissipated, Lehnah stretched languidly and smiled as she opened her eyes. The marble dome was filled with a mellow silvery-blue light. Thousands of stars glittered down at her through the glass dome. The air was much cooler now, enough to give the aisha goose bumps as a breeze drifted in from the garden, carrying the scent of night-blooming jasmine. A nice, long bath and a good meal were all she could think of now, although she had no idea where she'd get either in the middle of the desert.

She was pondering if any of the fruit trees she'd caught wind of had born any fruit ripe enough to eat when a loud grunt from the camel outside made her bolt upright. The animal brayed again, a frightened sound, and Lehnah heard the soft, quick thuds of the camel's feet on grass as it bolted. Lehnah scrambled to her feet, her eyes struggling to adjust to the dark enough to make out what had spooked her only transportation into abandoning her. Shuffling, dragging steps across the marble and faint, ragged breaths made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Lehnah's muscles tensed and she took up a defensive stance as she realized her only weapon, a dagger, was still in one of the bags tied to the camel. She cursed under her breath. She was answered with a hoarse wail from the thing that drew slowly towards her. A hunched shadow shambled through the doorway into the main chamber, the soft light illuminating next to nothing on it. It raised a clutching hand and rasped something that might or might not have been a word.

Terrified and unarmed, Lehnah did the only thing she could think to do. She called up a sunburst, throwing her arms toward the thing and flooding the room with a bright light, hoping to blind the thing long enough to escape. She knew a transport spell, but that took time and a calm mindset. She didn't trust herself to transport an inch right now without accidentally leaving an important body part behind. Her gamble paid off as the creature cried out hoarsely and stumbled into the fountain where it collapsed, covering its eyes and whimpering. Lehnah prepared herself to run, but in the lingering light of the sunburst, the cowering creature was clearly exposed. She had expected a sand wraith, or something equally monstrous and alien. What lay crumpled and trembling in the fountain was only vaguely recognizable as what it once was, but it was far from alien. It was a woman, and although her arms were raised over her face, Lehnah could see the long ears that could only mean a zafara. Her tanned skin was ashen and cracked from the dry desert heat, her clothing, what little there was left, was torn and covered in sand. She rasped something and choked, still trying to speak through her parched, dehydrated throat. Her trembling hands still covered her eyes.

"Oh dear god," Lehnah whispered and slowly approached the woman. She held her hands out, palms first, trying not to scare the poor thing anymore than she already had.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to frighten you. Are you alright?" Lehnah immediately felt a moron for asking such a stupid question. Aside from dehydration and exposure, the woman was perfectly fine. The woman made no sign that she heard or understood her, but she trembled more violently. The water splashed around her legs. It was a measure of her fright or her delirium that she seemed to remain oblivious to the water she crouched in. Lehnah knelt by the fountain, adjusting her skirt with one hand and reaching to take one of the woman's upraised arms. Her fingers reached the raw, cracked flesh and the woman cried out in pain. Lehnah flinched and withdrew her hand. The woman's skin had felt like brittle paper.

"I'm sorry," she said again, "I only want to help you." Lehnah laid a gentle hand on the woman's hair. She flinched a little, but remained in her defensive stance.

"Please," Lehnah said in the softest, calmest voice she could muster, "let me help you."

Slowly and jerkily, the woman lowered her arms.

"Oh god." Lehnah felt the air rush out of her. "Oh, you poor thing. What happened to you?"

The woman's face was as raw and cracked as her arms. Small cuts formed bloodless lines on her cheeks and around her mouth. Her eyes, large dark brown orbs, were dull and sunken in her gaunt face. Her hair was filthy, a tangled, sand-matted mess. She was hardly clothed for desert travel (not by normal standards anyway). A cropped silk shirt that might have been orange once was thin and so torn Lehnah was amazed it was able to stay on. Her breeches had fared better, but even they were ripped and frayed. There was a dark red stain on the hip that looked as though it carried around to the seat, but Lehnah couldn't be sure.

Lehnah swallowed hard and held her arms out. "Let me help you, little one," she said, smiling in what she hoped was a reassuring way. "I'll take care of you."

The woman's face went ashen and she fainted into Lehnah's outstretched arms. Lehnah grunted and pulled the woman from the fountain, intending to lay her on her back, but a glimpse of more dark red underneath her long matted hair made her carefully lay her on her side instead. As the zafara's feet came dripping from the water, Lehnah saw with a growing dismay that they were bare, and as she circled the unconscious woman she saw the soles were blistered and cut. Lehnah laid the woman's hair aside and choked. Her hair, back, and clothes were caked with dried blood. Long, ragged cuts covered her back, the wounds clogged with sand and scabs. Some of her hair remained stuck to the wounds, glued into place by the dried blood. She had been lashed, stripped of her boots and any cloak or robe that could have protected her from the harsh elements, and left to die in the desert.

"Who did this to you?" Lehnah whispered, shocked.

_Nevermind who did this to her_, she thought. _She's been out here for days, maybe weeks, and between dehydration, exposure, and blood loss, if I don't get her to a healer soon, she's dead_. And then again, she might well die anyway, even if their only transport wasn't miles away by now. Teleporting was an option, but 'risky' didn't even cover it. Lehnah didn't even know if she could teleport with another person in tow. Where to teleport was another problem. She'd have to have the location first, and she'd need somewhere where she could get the poor woman to a healer, a good one. Lehnah only knew of one person skilled enough in healing to give this woman even a fighting chance, and she knew exactly where to find them.

The distance, however, was staggering. A thousand miles at the very least. The furthest Lehnah had ever gone was half a mile, and that had been just herself. But that had been before she had left Altador on her pilgrimage, her powers were stronger now, and she was sitting on a wellspring of energy. Her jaw clenched, Lehnah gathered up the injured woman into her arms as gently as she could, and opened herself to the energy of the temple one last time. Closing her eyes, she began building an image of her destination in her mind, adding more and more details as she drank in more power. Lehnah built the house up in her mind, a three-story wood and stone cottage on the edge of a lush forest. She conjured up the garden that wrapped around the house; flowers, herbs, vines, bushes and trees, all with a purpose and a carefully chosen place. By the time Lehnah was done, every leaf and petal was where it should be, every crevice in every stone accounted for. Her muscles shaking with the strain, Lehnah finally released the energy in a thunderclap.

A roaring sound filled her ears and the air was sucked from her lungs. Her stomach lurched as she was jerked forward as by some invisible rope. There was a moment of seeming weightlessness where the marble that had been beneath her seemed to disappear. Another lurch hit her, and then a dizzying sensation of falling…and then a sudden grounding as Lehnah felt a cool carpet of soft grass underneath her folded legs. Her pulse raced in her ears, which still rung from the roaring of the spell, but through it she could faintly hear the sweet song of a nightingale. As the dizziness subsided, Lehnah opened her eyes and grinned up at the cottage. Firelight flickered welcomingly through the windows downstairs.

Fatigue overwhelmed Lehnah as she clung to her thankfully still living cargo. Too weak to stand, let alone carry the unconscious woman inside, Lehnah gathered up her remaining strength and shouted as loud as she could.

"_AADHLEI! AADHLEI!_"

The zafara in her arms groaned weakly. The door of the cottage flew open and two shadows filled the doorway.

"_Lehnah?!_" The familiar voice was such a relief that she nearly swooned.

"I need your help, Aadh," Lehnah called, fighting off a second wave of dizzying exhaustion. "She's hurt badly."

Lehnah heard voices after that, but she couldn't make anything out. Strong hands lifted the injured woman from her lap, and a second pair caught her as she began to fall forward. She felt herself being lifted, and then she fell into the cool, waiting darkness.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Breakfast in Bed 

"Rise and shine, Goldilocks."

Another familiar voice. Deep, rumbling, and a little irritated. She mumbled something that was supposed to be "I'm awake," but in her half-sleeping state came out "Muh wayg," and dug a little deeper into the warm bedcovers. The room flooded with light as the curtains were thrown back and the shutters flung open. Lehnah started and threw a hand up to cover her eyes.

A smug chuckle in that same deep voice. "Don't sit up too fast. Aadh made you some breakfast, and I wouldn't want it to end up on the floor."

Lehnah blinked the sleep out of her eyes and saw Enduun, Aadhlei's foster brother, leaning against the windowsill and fixing her with the same arrogant grin he always seemed to have when she was around. Enduun was the epitome of the golden boy; shoulder length flaxen hair shot through with golden feathers, large amber eyes in his hawk-like face, and fair, creamy skin. Enduun was a blacksmith, and his physique showed it. His long frame was well muscled, his upper body almost hairless from years at the forge, his large hands calloused. When she first met Enduun she had fallen for him almost instantly and tried every trick she knew to snare him, but nothing had worked. No matter how much or how little skin she showed him, or the "accidental" brushes of her body against his, the sly looks, the whispered promises, all were shot down with that damned smug smile and a sarcastic remark. And the more he brushed her aside, the more she had wanted him. Enduun was the only man who had ever seen through her, seen her advances for what they were: a cat and mouse game.

Her last attempt at his seduction had been over a year ago, when she'd "accidentally" let him catch her in the garden sunbathing in the nude. Aadhlei had been on one of her bi-weekly excursions into town to bring a new shipment of potions and powders to the shop, and Lehnah had been more than happy to take advantage of the opportunity to be alone with Enduun. She had wandered into the garden in a silken dressing gown, exaggerating her movements ever so slightly. She took long, slow steps, swaying her hips gently. She lay back on a long stone bench in the back garden and shrugged the robe off, so that it draped over the stone slab like an altar cloth. She lay there, nodding lilies brushing her toes, a fluttery feeling in her belly, feeling like an offering to some divine presence. Surely there was no way Enduun could say no to her like this. She had picked her position carefully; Enduun would have to pass her to get from the house to the little building in the back that served as his forge. Her skin tingling from the noonday sun, Lehnah had waited, the perfect honey pot, carefully stretching into an alluring yet casual pose. A gentle breeze drifted through the garden, stirring her hair and rippling through the lilies that brushed against her toes.

"Let me guess," Enduun rumbled, "trying to prevent tan lines?"

Lehnah opened her eyes and saw him standing perhaps twenty paces from her. His arms were folded over his thick chest as he regarded her with a nearly unreadable expression on his face.

"But then you don't tan, do you Goldilocks?"

Lehnah's stomach tightened, feeling a strange mix of exhilaration at the knowledge that his eyes were on her body, and a peculiar apprehension that stemmed from that unknown expression on Enduun's face. Lehnah put on her best coy smile and stretched a little, arching her back. After all, her breasts were her best assets.

"I am a solar creature, 'Duun," she purred. "The more light I can get, the better."

She swung her legs around smoothly, watching as his face colored almost imperceptibly and his eyes flicked away to avoid a glimpse of her most private parts. She stood, smiling, pleased that she had finally elicited some reaction from him. She planted her hands on her hips and looked up at Enduun through her long eyelashes. "Besides, the view isn't that bad, is it?"

His eyes locked on hers and bored into her. "You never quit, do you?" he asked softly.

"Now why would I want to do that?"

He made a low growling noise in the back of his throat. "Put your clothes on, Goldilocks. Or go peddle your wares somewhere else."

Her entire face had lit up as if on fire. She gritted her teeth and balled her hands into fists, absolutely furious. "What, you don't like women, is that it?" she spat. "What are you, a faggot?"

Suddenly the smile was back on Enduun's face and it made Lehnah's blood boil. "The kitten finally shows her claws," he cooed. "And to answer your question, Goldilocks, I like women just fine." The smile faded and his brow creased. "I would quicker bed a pit viper than you, milady. A viper, at least, doesn't hide its nature behind a honeyed tongue. You're dangerous, little girl. You're a scorpion with a fine pair of tits."

Lehnah shivered as her skin prickled hot and cold, a knot in the back of her throat and another in the pit of her stomach. She took a shocked step back as Enduun closed the distance between them in a few quick ground-eating paces and took her jaw firmly in his hand. Her face was tiny in his large, rough hand. He was close enough to kiss, his large golden eyes boring into her. His gaze was so intense that she trembled. She was a dove in the hands of a hawk, and she was afraid.

"I've never hurt a woman, nor do I intend to, little girl, but I am warning you right here and right now to stop this game. Go find yourself a nice little stable boy or a farmhand to bed and discard, provided your bed won't be reduced to kindling if you put another notch in it." Enduun put his mouth directly to her ear and whispered, "I will not be your plaything."

He released her chin and exhaled sharply. He looked down at Lehnah, naked and shaking like a leaf in a hurricane and sighed, picking up her robe and thrusting it into her arms. "For god's sake, put some clothes on and go inside."

He had stalked off to his forge, leaving Lehnah swaying on her feet. Lehnah had stood there for another moment, dumbstruck and then had quickly pulled her dressing gown on and fled inside. She had never felt so humiliated, so furious, and so utterly exposed in her life. Her eyes burned with tears as she stumbled up the stairs and into her room. She had thrown herself onto her bed, burying her face in the pillow until her sobs had quieted and her stomach stopped churning. Finally, a dull pounding in her head, Lehnah had dressed and tossed most of her clothes into a leather satchel. She practically sprinted down to the stables, feeling an apprehensive shiver as she heard the echoing clangs of Enduun's hammer coming down over and over onto a chunk of hot metal, and saddled her horse.

She rode the gelding fast down the beaten dirt roads, desperate to outrun her humiliation. It was miles before the wind had dried all her tears, but her jaw remained firmly clenched and a leaden weight remained in the pit of her stomach. Every time her mind called up Enduun's words, Lehnah pushed the horse a little faster, letting adrenaline flood out her rage. _How dare he?_, was all she could think. _How fucking _dare_ he?_

She was so lost in her own anger that she nearly ran down the young man before she saw him. She reigned in her horse at the last minute, the farmhand throwing his arms up and shouting something that was lost in the nervous whinnies of her horse.

"What the hell is the matter with you?!" she shrieked, jumping nimbly off her mount and launching herself at the dumbstruck man. She shoved him hard and he staggered backwards. "What the hell is your problem?"

She shoved him again and he fell into the thick grass beside the road. Half a dozen grasshoppers launched out of the grass, startled by the impact. He was babbling, his hands up in a defensive gesture. Surely this woman was crazy.

Instead of backing off, Lehnah jumped onto the man's stomach and began pounding his chest with her fists. "_I could have killed you!" _she screamed as she pummeled his chest. "_I could have run you down you horse-brained moron! Is that what you want? To be trampled to death with your brains mashed into some backwoods road?_"

The young man had finally had enough and his shocked paralysis broke. He grabbed Lehnah's wrists and strained to hold her still. Lehnah only fought back harder, thrashing wildly, trying to wrench herself free from the man's grip. "_Let go! Let me go, goddamn you! How dare you, get your hands OFF me! How DARE you? HOW DARE YOU, YOU BASTARD?!_"

"Miss, calm down!" The young man tried to make his voice heard over Lehnah's shrewish spitting and cursing. "Please, miss! I didn't-"

Still she fought, seeming to be caught on three words – "How dare you?"

Lehnah shook and twisted, seeing not a startled farmhand beneath her, but Enduun. That great blonde bastard with the holier-than-thou smirk and the unshakable amber glare. How dare he humiliate her like that, belittle her, accuse her of being nothing more than a common whore. How dare he refuse her? Now there was the root. She had never been turned down by a man. Ever. And rejection did not sit well with her.

The farmhand finally had enough and he jerked her wrists down, bringing Lehnah's face down to his so hard she nearly head butted him, and shouted "_Stop it!_" directly into her stunned face.

Panting, Lehnah finally came to her senses, seeing the face so close to her own was not 'Duun's, but a lupine man with a wild shock of black hair and bright green eyes. He stared at her dumbly, not knowing what to say now that she had finally quieted, and unsure of the way the woman's eyes slowly searched his face. He slowly released her wrists, and not knowing where else to put his hands, took her gently by the shoulders. "Are you," he stammered for a moment as Lehnah's hands found his chest, almost appraising the years of farm muscle there, "are you alright, miss?"

_Go find yourself a nice little stable boy or a farmhand to bed and discard,_ Lehnah heard in the back of her mind. And maybe she would. Maybe she would.

The hands on Lehnah's shoulders began pushing her back gently, but she had other ideas. She grabbed his neck and pressed her mouth hard onto his, quite possibly securing the farmhand's theory that this woman was mad. Not that he cared much about her sanity by the time she was through. The farmhand was young enough that his hormones still had a firmer reign of his actions than his mind, and he was easily swayed to the woman's needs. Lehnah had bedded the farmhand in the grass by the old dirt road while her horse simply wandered ahead to crop at the greens.

Enduun cleared his throat loudly, bringing Lehnah back to the present. He smirked, making Lehnah grit her teeth, and nodded toward the wooden tray in her lap. Herbed eggs on toast, green tea, and a bowl of Aadh's famous apple, almond, and cinnamon honey salad; the smell alone made Lehnah's appetite roar to life. On a normal day, Lehnah would eat Aadhlei's cooking slowly, relishing the flavors (Aadhlei was easily the best cook Lehnah knew), but right now her stomach had overruled her taste buds. She wolfed down her breakfast, foods which Aadhlei had specifically chosen for their restorative properties, saving the tea for last.

"How is she?" Lehnah asked in between sips of the steaming infusion.

"Bad," Enduun answered flatly. He leaned back against the windowsill and tucked his wings tightly behind him. "She's still unconscious, although Aadh woke her up long enough to get one of her brews and a bit of food into her. Nothing much, just oatmeal. We cleaned her up last night, her wounds had to be scrubbed before she could dress them."

Lehnah winced, remembering the extent of the lashings on the girl's back.

"Oh she was unconscious through the whole of it, I doubt she felt a thing." He paused, frowning. "She got…well to put it bluntly she got violent. Gave Aadh a black eye for her troubles. I had to hold her down and Aadh – well, to be honest, I don't know what she did to the woman, but it calmed her right down."

Lehnah eyed Enduun closely, not liking the nervous expression on his normally unshakable features. "The woman, she's got a burn here," he tapped a long finger underneath the hollow between his collarbones. "When Aadhlei touched it, that's when she went crazy. Did you see it?"

Lehnah shook her head. "No. I don't remember it anyway. But I didn't have much time to get a good look at her."

Enduun nodded and continued. "Well, when Aadh touched it, she said she saw things. I don't think she told me all of what she saw, but she's pretty shaken up about it. She's seen things before with that healer's touch of hers, but she says it was nothing compared to this."

Lehnah swallowed hard and set down her teacup. "What did she see?"

He sighed and rubbed the side of his face hard. "Some kind of mob after the woman. A dark-skinned man torturing her. She never got a sense of what the woman's name was, but she says the people she saw were all in desert garb."

Enduun fixed Lehnah with a hard gaze. "What the hell happened? What do you know about her? Where did you find her? Hell, how did you get here?"

"That," she said softly, "is a long story."

He exhaled sharply, exasperated.

"Did she say anything?" Lehnah asked suddenly. "The woman, when Aadh woke her, did she say anything?"

Enduun's brow creased deeper, and he nodded slightly. "The only thing she said that I understood was '_Anu be merciful_.' The rest was just screaming. She probably won't be able to speak in more than a rasp for a few days." He dropped his hands to his sides. "I can't just stand around here, I've got a lot of work to do. Aadh's got to keep an eye on the woman, so the housework falls to me today." He grumbled a little. "Aprons don't look good on me, dammit. Aadh wants to talk to you once you're dressed. She's got a lot of questions."

Lehnah looked into the dregs of the teacup and sighed. "I'm afraid I've got less answers than she'd like."

Enduun gave her a quizzical look, and then simply sighed. Let his sister deal with this one. "Well, your clothes and things are still here. Aadh always assumes guests will come back and she's usually right. In fact if she gets any more right about that, I'll be building a new wing on the damned house." He chuckled. "Anyway, Aadh's with the girl in the last room on the right," he jerked his thumb at the door. "Come in when you're ready."

He turned to leave but Lehnah called after him. A rather uncomfortable thought had just occurred to her.

"Wait, uh-" she trailed off. He turned back, fixing her with that calm, unshakeable glance that always aggravated the hell out of her. She tried to clear her throat of the sudden lump that had formed there. "Ciry isn't here…is he?"

Enduun's raucous laughter made Lehnah's face color with embarrassment and anger. She gritted her teeth. Cirobenes, or Ciry as he was usually called, was a close friend of Enduun's who had fallen hard for Lehnah when they'd first met a little over a year ago. He was north man, a bori, known for his imposing stature, impulsive behavior, and a surprisingly skilled hand at gem crafts. Ciry had been raised in a mining colony far into the mountains, and the years spent laboring deep underground had given him a heavily muscled physique. Lehnah was used to flocks of suitors, she'd had her fair share clamoring around her parent's estate as soon as she'd hit puberty, even more after her talents had been discovered, so the come-ons from Ciry hadn't exactly been a shock.. She had enjoyed his advances at first, and had even toyed with the idea of sleeping with him after Enduun's final rejection, but there was an intensity to the man that worried her. Ciry was rough, uncouth, cocky, and had a well-earned reputation as a barroom brawler. Quite simply, he was too much for Lehnah to deal with.

Enduun reigned in his laughter. "No, no, he's not been here for awhile. Out checking out a tourmaline mine up in Cogham, not due back for at least two more weeks. You're safe from his advances for the moment, Goldilocks."

"Go to hell, 'Duun," Lehnah growled under her breath.

He just smiled at her. "Tell you what, milady, if you get there before I do, save me a good seat." He left.

Lehnah passed a hand over her brow, feeling the beginnings of a headache throbbing at her temples. Gods, how she hated that man. Ciry might be hard to handle, but Enduun was simply infuriating. She laid her head back against the headboard of the bed and glanced around the room. It was exactly as she had left it, her own home away from home. The walls were a cream white, the floors dark wood, much like the rest of the house. Her bed was simple but elegant, big enough to be luxurious but not so big as to be excessive, and clad in pale gold damask. A filmy white and gold half-canopy draped over it. On the other side of the room, a marble-topped vanity was scattered with little pots of cosmetics and small jewelry boxes. Nearer to the window was her favorite bit of furniture: a gold upholstered chaise lounge that was thick with stuffing and so comfortable that Lehnah had slept on it more than once. Despite yesterday's events and her always-awkward talk with Aadhlei's big brother, Lehnah couldn't help but feel like she'd come home.

She rose, still clad in the same thin dress she'd worn the day before, and rooted through her closet to see what clothes she had left. She dressed quickly; burgundy trousers tucked into soft leather boots of the same color, and a loose, fluttery white shirt. She took no time to brush her hair as she usually would, and instead twisted it into a knot at the back of her head. She secured the knot with twin porcelain sticks and eyed her reflection. The woman that stared back at her hardly seemed to be herself. This woman was tired, confused, and more often than not, angry. There was a time that she would have laughed at anyone who suggest that she were unhappy. Now, however, it seemed her joys were fleeting.

"What the hell is wrong with me?" she whispered her reflection.

The soft cry of a whippoorwill was the only response.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: The Healer's Touch**

_Gods and Faeries, the girl hits hard_, Aadhlei thought. Her long fingers traced delicately across the puffed, bruised flesh around her right eye and winced. She sat with her hoofed feet curled under her, staring at the unrecognizable bundle of bandages that lay on the small bed. Aadhlei's eyes searched the gauze-covered face and wrapped a hand tightly around her long, braided hair. _What the hell did I do to her? _

Newly returned from a two-day journey into Brightvale and deeply tired, Aadhlei had been so shocked to hear Lehnah's voice call out to her from the front garden last night, and had been even more shocked at the sight of her friend in a crumpled heap in the grass, an unknown woman lying in her lap. From there her instincts had taken over, and with Enduun's help, both women had been carried inside.

Her first thought had been to tend to her friend, but her gut told her otherwise. Aadhlei had an innate gift, what the auld matron Kenna, who had raised Aadhlei and Enduun in the orphanage in Meridell, had called the healer's touch. It was a kind of empathy, an ability to sense mental and physical distress. As a child she had been able to sense the other children's discomfort, often tottering up to Kenna and tugging on her voluminous skirts to report that someone had a bellyache, or a toothache, or a fever without the afflicted child having to say a word about it. When Kenna had realized the young Ixi was more than just a keen observer, Aadhlei was quickly swept away from the normal daily chores and brought into a private tutelage. Kenna had taught the young girl everything she knew about healing, from herbal medicines to folk remedies, and under her guidance, Aadhlei's gift of the healer's touch flourished.

Aadhlei gingerly touched her swollen eye and sighed. Her gift had flourished, all right. Up until last night she hadn't realized just how much. She had carried the unknown, unconscious woman inside, Enduun trailing behind her with Lehnah casually slung over his shoulder.

"Put her to bed," Aadhlei had called over her shoulder as her hooves clicked rapidly over the stairs. "She's exhausted, but she's fine."

As she hurried down the hall with the Zafara groaning weakly in her arms she heard 'Duun call after her, but her mind was too focused on her new charge to hear him. _Heat stroke? _, she thought, confused. _How can she have heat stroke? It hasn't been that hot here. _ The woman's back felt gritty and oddly lumpy. Aadhlei hastened her steps.

She pushed her way through the door at the end of the hallway with her back and stepped carefully into the dark room. Three paces in and her leg brushed the side of the bed, and she laid the woman down carefully, hurriedly groping in the dark for the hurricane lamp she knew was there. Her jaw set as the light grew and the fragile, ashen figure became more visible. She was long limbed and longhaired, her large eyes rimmed with deep dark circles like bruises, her full lips cracked and raw. There was an oddly discolored blotch at the base of the woman's throat. Aadhlei laid a delicate hand on the woman's brow. Her skin felt like hot sandpaper. Remembering the strange feel of the woman's back, Aadhlei gingerly rolled the woman on her side.

"Gods and faes," she breathed, staring at the long, blood-crusted gashes. She probed the wounds gently, flakes of dried blood and what looked to be sand falling onto the bed sheets. There were at least ten gashes altogether, crisscrossed like whip wounds, but Aadhlei had never seen a whip do this kind of damage. The width and depth suggested a large animal claw, but there was no consistent pattern, as sets of claws would make. Gently and slowly, Aadhlei rolled the woman back over and quickly went around the room to light the rest of the lamps.

In the ten years since Aadhlei and her brother had built the house, there had been a surprising amount of wounded travelers or sick townsfolk that would somehow find their way to the vine-covered doorstep. So many, in fact, that Aadhlei had insisted at least two of the spare rooms be converted into sick rooms. This was one such, outfitted with a single bed, a pair of chairs, a washbasin, and a wooden tub with a hand pump built into the wall above it (cold water only, but there were always heat stones in the house, small flint-like rocks that when struck against each other became quite hot. Three or so dropped in a tub of cold water quickly turned the water pleasantly hot without the bother of boiling buckets of water). A cabinet and shelves were set into the wall near the door, the shelves crowded of jars and bottles of various brews and salves Aadhlei always liked to keep on hand for emergencies.

The door creaked open and Enduun stepped inside. "Lehnah's taken care off, Aadh. Do you need help with this one?"

Aadhlei nodded and flapped a hand distractedly at the wooden tub. "Fill the tub, 'Duun, we need to lower her temperature. She's got heat stroke."

Enduun gave his foster sister a quizzical look. "Heat stroke? How the hell could she get heat stroke?"

"I don't know," Aadhlei said sharply, rooting in one of the drawers of the bedside table. "I also don't know why her back looks as though she's been mauled by a mountain lion with one claw, and I don't know why the hell she's got sand in the bloody wounds and on her clothes." She sighed and leaned against the nightstand. "I'm sorry, 'Duun. Just please fill the tub up. I've got to bring down her temperature and scrub out those wounds." He made no reply, but as Aadhlei's hand closed around the old pair of scissors in the nightstand she heard the squeak of the hand pump and a rush of water.

Working quickly but cautiously, Aadhlei cut through the tattered remains of the woman's shirt and peeled off the front, leaving the back to be removed once it could be soaked free of the wounds. Aadhlei started to remove the woman's trousers, but stopped. What she had first taken for a raw spot or some discoloration on the woman's chest was now fully lighted. An odd glyph – two vertical lines intersected by a horizontal line and topped by another – had been burned into the woman's skin.

"Gods and faes, 'Duun she's been _branded. _"

"What?" he said incredulously, the squeak of the pump slowing.

"On her chest, right below her throat. It's some kind of glyph or a symbol, I've never seen it before." Instinctively, Aadhlei bent over and delicately touched the area around the burn. Everything that happened after that took only a span of ten seconds, but the more Aadhlei played it back in her head, the more it seemed to stretch out to hours. She had sometimes felt things strongly through the touch, but compared to this even the strongest sense was like a passing thought.

As soon as her fingers touched the inflamed skin, the woman's eyes snapped open and locked on Aadhlei. It was a deluge, a torrent of visions that nearly knocked Aadhlei off her feet. A cacophony of chanting filled her ears, accompanied by hellishly discordant pipes. A black leonine figure towering over her with a long metal brand in his hand, the end glowing a fierce red. He thrust it forward and Aadhlei heard a sick sizzling sound and a weak wail as he melted away. A throng of people in desert garb cursing and spitting and throwing sand. The cacophony of voices was cut through by whip crack after whip crack, and Aadhlei knew it was not claws that had made those gashes on the woman's back. It was teeth. A whip woven with animal teeth.

The chanting grew louder, and the images rushed by faster. Sand dunes teeming with a hoard of rodents, rat-like things the size of small dogs, with sickeningly human faces and long rows of spines down their hunched backs. A queer violet light filled Aadhlei's eyes and grew in intensity. As the brightness grew, so did the voices and the pipes, until it all merged into one deafening scream.

"_NOOOOOO!!! IA! IA! ANU BE MERCIFUL! _"

The vision broke and Aadhlei realized the screaming was coming from the woman on the bed. Her eyes were wide and terrified, her skin even paler than before. Her arms and legs thrashed wildly, as if fending off unseen attackers. _The rats or the man with the brand? _, Aadhlei thought briefly, and immediately grabbed the woman's arms and tried to calm her.

"It's alright, you're safe! You're safe! It's over!"

If the woman heard her, she made no show of it. Enduun made a grab for her ankles and was sent stumbling back towards the door as she kicked him hard in the chest. She snaked one of her arms free from Aadhlei's grasp and Aadhlei had a moment to wonder at the shocking amount of strength the she still had before she was knocked to the floor as the back of the woman's fist connected with the side of her face. Enduun growled and pushed himself off from the door.

"This is the last time we take in strays," he muttered. As agile as a lynx, he leapt up onto the bed, pinning the woman's arms to her sides and sitting on her knees. She struggled and screamed underneath him, but his grip was too strong. "Aadh, if you're going to do something, you better do it now!" he barked.

Aadhlei sat dazed, a defensive hand to her rapidly swelling eye. What could she do? Sedatives were too dangerous in the woman's weakened (and wasn't that a laugh?) state, and there was certainly no way she was going to be cooperative enough to let herself be treated. But given what Aadhlei had just seen, she didn't blame the woman in the least. The woman's screams were weakening, becoming harsher as her throat gave out, and Enduun barked again. "_Aadhlei, dammit, DO SOMETHING! _"

Aadhlei scrambled to her feet and, reacting sheerly on impulse, laid her hands on either side of the woman's face. There was a sound like a rush of wind, and a faint greenish-gold glow infused the woman's face. A faint smell the ground after a rainstorm wafted through the room. The woman's cries instantly ceased. Her large eyes again locked on Aadhlei's green ones, and her expression , which had but a moment before been one of utter terror, was now one of shock and gratitude. Her mouth worked silently, her throat so abused it could hardly make more than a squeak.

"Gone," she croaked. She mouthed soundlessly again, and then, "…quiet."

Aadhlei exhaled sharply and stroked the woman's brow. "You're safe now, child. Go to sleep. Nothing here will harm you."

Again the woman's mouth worked as if to say something, but exhaustion got the better of her. Her eyes slipped closed and she fell instantly asleep. Now that she was no longer making frantic moves to attack anything and everything around her, Enduun finally seemed to realize that the woman he was straddling was bare-chested. His cheeks lit up as if on fire and he hastily climbed off her. Trying to cling on to some sense of chivalry, he pried his eyes away from her exposed breasts and stared down at his sister. Aadhlei knelt panting by the bed, her left hand absently stroking the woman's forehead. Her right eye was swollen shut, the flesh a dark, nasty purple; her left was impossibly wide and glassy.

"What did you do?" Enduun whispered incredulously.

Her eyes slowly moved up to meet his, and Enduun could see tears glimmering on her cheeks. When she spoke, her voice was weak and quavery. "I…I don't know. I just…it was instinct. I just _did_ it." She swallowed hard. "'Duun, when I touched the burn on her chest, I…I saw things."

He frowned at her and waited for her to elaborate, but instead she just swiped her tears away and said, "Help me get her in the tub."

Enduun and Aadhlei had spent the next three hours bent over the wooden tub scrubbing sand and old dried blood from the Zafara's wounds and bandaging her up, Aadhlei periodically checking the woman's fever and adding colder water. Several times she shook the woman carefully awake to trickle a small handful of water into her mouth. When at last the woman's skin was a ruddy pink from the scrubbing, Aadhlei took the gentlest washcloth she had and carefully washed her down with a mild soap, even taking care to wash and comb her matted hair and plait it into a sleeping braid. When Aadhlei was satisfied that the cold water would lower the woman's fever no farther, she and Enduun lifted her from the water. Enduun held her upright, trying his damnedest to keep away from both her wounds and her breasts, while Aadhlei patted her down with a soft towel. A thick salve was applied to the wounds on her back and feet, and another ointment of aloe and calendula coated the rest of her skin. The damp weather had Aadhlei worried about the possibility of infections, so while thick bandages covered the deeper wounds, a thin wrap of gauze engulfed the woman's extremities. Her skin had suffered much abuse and would need as much time to heal as her dehydrated organs. Finally, as the woman, looking more like a desert mummy than a woman, was laid back in bed, Aadhlei plucked a large bottle of amber liquid from the shelves near the door and woke the woman again to administer a few sips of the potion before she slipped once again into a soundless sleep.

Exhausted, Aadhlei had slumped into the nearest chair. Enduun eased himself into the chair next to her and put a hand on her arm. "Did you find out her name?" he asked softly.

Aadhlei shook her head slowly.

Enduun squeezed her arm gently. "Are you all right, Aadh?"

Her long braid, which had been so neat that morning, was now a frazzled mess that swung pendulously above her lap. Only exhaustion kept her from bursting into tears. "Gods and faes, 'Duun," she whispered. "The things they did to her."

"What did you see?"

With a shaking voice, Aadhlei told Enduun of the images she'd seen, stopping short of the horde of rats. Her mind could simply not put into words how horrific those things had seemed, monstrous things that simply had no right to exist in a sane world.

Enduun had just stared, flabbergasted. He had known about Aadhlei's gift since they were children, but it had never brought on visions like this. _And what about what happened when she touched the woman's face? _, he thought. _What in Illusen's name was that? _

Aadhlei sighed heavily, and Enduun had the uncomfortable notion that she'd heard that last thought. She wearily patted his large hand. "Get some sleep, 'Duun. I'm going to have to keep a close eye on this one, and I'm going to need you to manage the house tomorrow."

And so Enduun had wandered off to bed, and Aadhlei had spent the night dozing fitfully in the uncomfortable wooden chair (she doubted seriously that she would have slept any better in her own bed, every time she drifted off to sleep she dreamt of those abhorrent rats) and periodically trickling small cupfuls of water into the Zafara's mouth when her instincts told her it was needed.

When the sky outside the latticed window had turned gold and fuchsia but the sun still lingered just below the horizon, Enduun had returned, sporting a monumental case of bed head. He was wearing the same clothes as the day before, only now far more rumpled. The overall effect made it clear that he had slept in his clothes. Aadhlei had let him watch over the woman while she busied herself in the kitchen. She had quickly made breakfast for herself, a bowl of oatmeal and a cup of strong coffee, before raiding the pantry to make Enduun and Lehnah's meals. Aadhlei had always preferred eating food that she could grow herself, but her upbringing in the orphanage had taught her quickly to not be picky about what she ate. A belly full of mutton stew was far better than going hungry. When 'Duun's meal was laid out on the kitchen table and Lehnah's was safely stowed in the oven to keep warm, Aadhlei mixed up another bowl of oatmeal for her new patient. She wasn't sure how long it had been since the woman had eaten, but she was betting it was too long. Granted, there was the distinct possibility that anything she fed the woman now might come right back up (frankly, Aadhlei was amazed the woman had no problem keeping the water down), but she had to eat _something_.

Feeling a little revived from her small meal, and probably moreso by the coffee, Aadhlei had mounted the stairs and let her brother slip away for his breakfast.

"Lehnah's breakfast is in the oven to keep warm, and there's some tea on the stovetop for her. When you've finished with your food, would you bring hers up to her?"

Enduun had nodded and headed down the stairs.

"And tell her I want to talk to her about her companion when she's finished eating," she called after him.

Enduun grunted an acknowledgement and stalked away.

Aadhlei then spent the best part of an hour spooning oatmeal into the zafara's mouth. She never tried to speak, Aadhlei got the distinct feeling that the woman wasn't fully aware of what was going on, but her large brown eyes stayed locked on Aadhlei's face. She did far better than Aadhlei had expected, only throwing up twice. Quick reflexes and a nearby bucket had saved Aadhlei the need to change the woman's bandages early or the bedsheets. When the last of the oatmeal was gone and another small cupful of water had been drunk, Aadhlei had taken the woman's hand and asked softly, "Can you tell me your name, little one?"

The woman blinked slowly, her eyelids already growing heavy. She could not muster up so much as a croak, her voice had been so abused the night before, but a halting whisper escaped her lips. "Nnn-no-nn…," her eyes closed briefly, frowning at the effort it took to speak such a simple thing as her name. "Nonhiel."

Aadhlei smiled at her the way a teacher smiles at a student who has finally solved a difficult equation. "That is a lovely name, Nonhiel. My name is Aadhlei, and I'm going to take good care of you."

The woman's – Nonhiel – mouth opened and closed slowly, as if to say something else, but again her exhaustion took over, and her eyes slipped closed.

That had been at least an hour ago, maybe more, and the sunlight had faded. Rain-laden clouds hung heavy in the sky and rumbled faintly with thunder. The air was thick with humidity, and Aadhlei was sure that it would be raining heavily before lunchtime. She stared out the window at the slow moving clouds and absently toyed with her braid, wondering if Lehnah had finished with her breakfast yet.

As if in answer, there was a gentle rapping at the door and Lehnah's voice called out from the other side, "Aadh? You in there?"

"I'm here, Lehnah," she called back. "Come in."

The peculiar yellow-green stormlight had cast an odd pallor over the room, but as soon as Lehnah stepped through the door the gloom seemed to lift a little. Despite this, Lehnah looked uneasy, even as she smiled and held her arms out to embrace her friend, Aadhlei could sense she was troubled. Aadhlei hugged her friend and gave her a peck on the cheek.

"How are you feeling, dear?" Aadhlei inquired, gesturing to the second chair as she sat down.

"Tired," Lehnah answered truthfully. "I think I could have slept until dinner time if Enduun hadn't woken me up. Are you alright?" She gestured to Aadhlei's black eye.

"Oh, that, aye, I'm fine. It'll go away in a few days."

Lehnah nodded, then added, "You look like you've been up all night."

Aadhlei chuckled. "No, no, not all night. But wooden chairs are not known for being particularly comfortable to sleep in."

Lehnah smiled apologetically, and outside the thunder rumbled louder. "How is she doing?" she asked.

Aadhlei said, "Better. She slept most of the night, when I wasn't waking her up to get more water into her. It will be awhile before we'll know how bad the damage is, but right now I think she'll recover fine."

She recounted the previous night's events, watching as Lehnah's brow knitted tightly when she spoke of the vision's she'd received, and effect her touch had on the panicked woman. She fell silent, and she and Lehnah simply sat stared at the sleeping Zafara. She sighed, amazed at how much idle conversation seemed impossible under these new circumstances.

"Did she tell you her name?" Aadhlei asked.

Lehnah shook her head, her eyes never moving from the bandaged form. "No. She never said anything that I could make out."

Aadhlei said simply, "Nonhiel. It's Nonhiel."

Silence descended again, both women lost in their own thoughts. A sudden wind picked up outside, the trees rustling dryly, and thunder boomed overhead. The rain began, large drops patting down onto the roof. As the rain fell harder, Aadhlei laid a hand on Lehnah's arm, startling the Aisha out of her thoughts.

"I need to know what happened, Lehnah. I know what I saw, but it doesn't make sense."

Lehnah rubbed her temples. She talked for perhaps half an hour, describing her trek through the Lost Desert in search of a hidden temple, the peculiar band of gypsies she'd encountered (which seemed to pique Aadhlei's interest greatly), and finally the arrival of a wounded and delirious Zafara.

Aadhlei frowned and tilted her head to one side, a stray lock of hair catching on one of her short, black horns. "But how on earth did you get here?"

"As impossible as it sounds, I transported us here." Lehnah smiled thinly at her friend's shocked expression. "I know, but Aadh, if you could have _felt_ the power coming from that place. It was like…," she paused, searching for the right words, "it was like dropping a lit match into a haystack. The only hard part was trying to control it."

Aadhlei stared, flabbergasted. "Well. That certainly explains a few things. Unfortunately it also leaves a lot unanswered."

Lehnah nodded slowly in agreement. Outside there was a brilliant flash of violet light and an earsplitting crack of lightning. Both women jumped, and the bandaged form suddenly sat bolt-upright in the bed.

_It was the light_, Aadhlei thought. _That violet light. Witchlight_.

The woman named Nonhiel did not scream, but her breath came in harsh gasps, her hands gripping the bedclothes fiercely. "_No! _" she whispered hoarsely. "_No no no no no! God no! Anu be merciful! _"

Within seconds Aadhlei and Lehnah were next to her, Aadhlei stroking her hair and Lehnah clasping one the woman's balled fist.

"Shhh, it's alright, it's just the lightning," Aadhlei said, her words punctuated by another clap of thunder. The rain fell harder, and now hail came with it, bouncing off of the roof and occasionally pinging off of the latticed window.

"It's just a storm, little one," Lehnah added. "Just a storm."

Nonhiel's dark eyes locked onto Lehnah's blue ones.

"You," she whispered. "I remember you."

Lehnah nodded and squeezed the woman's hand, which was slowly releasing its grip on the blanket. "Yes. I found you in the temple and I brought you here. My friend Aadhlei has been taking care of you."

Nonhiel swallowed hard. "Not – not a dream?" A look of near-panic came over her face, a fear that this shelter was a hallucination.

"No, little one, this is no dream," Lehnah said, sharing a concerned and pitying glance with Aadhlei. "You are safe here, I promise you."

The relief on the Zafara's face was unmistakable. Tears spilled from her eyes and rolled down her oily cheeks. All Aadhlei and Lehnah could do was hold her as she wept.


End file.
